I successfully fought the urge to eat out again tonight and instead bought hella groceries for the same amount I would've spent sitting at the bar. Yay me nshit *flame emoji*.

So for your feasting pleasure, here's a super quick recipe to set your night on fire. *another flame emoji*

Ingredients

1-2 salmon filet portions that are about 1-1.5 inches thick

6 cloves of garlic cut into large chunks

3/4 cup of half and half

4 tbsp of butter

1 lemon, juice and zest

1/2 cup of chopped kale

1/2 tsp of salt and pepper plus a pinch to season the salmon

1 tsp of fresh chopped parsley

1 tbsp of light cooking oil plus a drizzle for the salmon

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once warm, add your garlic and butter. Reduce the heat to your lowest setting and let it cook for about 15 min.

2. Remove the garlic from the oil and whisk in the heavy cream, 1/2 of the lemon juice, all zest, parsley and the salt and pepper. Reheat the sauce to a simmer.

3. While the sauce simmers, add in your kale and cook it until it wilts and turns bright green. Adjust the seasoning to taste if necessary. Remove from the heat.

4. Heat a saute pan over medium/high heat with a healthy drizzle of oil. While it's heating, season your salmon with salt and pepper.

5. Just before the oil begins to smoke, add in your salmon flesh side down. Cook it until the salmon is no longer bright pink about halfway through the thickest part. Reduce the heat to medium. Flip the salmon to skin side down and cook it just until there is no more visible bright pink flesh and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Total cook time: about 2 min per side.

6. While the salmon is hot and still in the pan, squeeze lemon juice over it and top it with the creamed kale. Serve it over your fave rice or pasta and get it lit 🔥

I wanted some pasta this afternoon and I didn't wanna wait an eternity of making anything from scratch. It was this or the drive-thru and frankly I get more bang for my buck at the grocery store. (I'm trying to turn a new financial leaf here.) So I had to think sharp and fast. What does one do when thou stomach rumbles in the grocery aisle?

Besides buying endless snacks, you get some help from jars and bags. Let's go..

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of your fave bruschetta mix

1.5 cups of your fave frozen tortellini (I used plain cheese)

1/2 cup of the pasta water set aside

1 cup of chopped kale

1/2 cup of sliced crimini mushrooms

1 tbsp of worcesteshire sauce

1 light drizzle of agave or honey

few drops of lemon juice

2 tbsp of light cooking oil (I like olive and avocado)

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

1 pinch of chili powder

1 clove of chopped garlic

1 tsp of fresh chopped parsley

fresh grated parmesan to taste

Instructions

1. Prepare your tortellini as instructed. Strain it (saving 1/2 cup of the water), toss it with a bit of oil and set it aside.

3. Heat a sauté pan over med-high heat with the remaining oil. Once the oil is almost smoking, add in the mushrooms and cook them until golden brown. Drain them.

4. In a seperate sauté pan, add in you bruschetta mix and water. Bring it to a simmer for 3 min. or until slightly reduced.

5. Toss the mushrooms into the sauce along with the pasta and kale. Top with fresh parm and the remaining parsley. Enjoy!

January 4, 2018

Curry Chickpea Tacos

You can never have too many tacos. Hence why I'm doing another post about them a month later lol. You can also never have too many bowls of curry chickpeas, because hello? Cheap, delicious and the leftovers are fuego.

Ingredients

3/4 cups of chopped curry chickpeas with most of the sauce drained (I used the Masala Chickpea recipe from Trill Prep)

3 cups of fresh chopped kale

1 lemon (juice and zest)

2 cloves of chopped garlic

1/4 cup of chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup of chopped white onion

1 tsp of agave or honey

1 tsp of fresh parsley

1 tsp of olive oil or avocado oil

1 tsp of salt and pepper

5 mini corn tortillas

1 cup of water in a small bowl

Instructions

1. Heat a sauté pan over med/high heat. Dip each tortilla into the bowl of water for 2 seconds then place it in the pan. Cook each tortilla until lightly charred on each side. Set them aside.

2. Wipe out your pan and reheat it with the oil over med/high until just before it begins to smoke.

3. Add in your kale, half of the lemon juice and zest, half of the salt and pepper, half of the agave/honey and half the garlic. Cook until the kale is wilted but still bright green. About 30-45 seconds. Remove from the heat.

Coconut Herb Rice

I love rice, especially jasmine....I could eat the stuff by the bowl plain with nothing on it. But this isn't your regular ol' white rice. I had to throw some respeck on it right quick BUT it's super quick and simple like all of my recipes. Peep.

Ingredients

1 cup of jasmine rice

2 cups of water

1/4 cup of canned coconut milk fat skimmed from the top

2 tbsp of fresh parsley

Instructions

1. Bring the water to a boil.

2. Add in your rice and cover. Cook on med-low until the water has evaporated and the rice is tender but still has a bit of chewiness. Remove from the heat and keep it covered for 10 min.

3. While the rice is still warm, stir in the coconut milk fat and parsley. DASSIT.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste if you wish (I love it plain)

December 21, 2017

Southwest Ground "Beef"

Had a hankering for tacos last night so I decided to take advantage of an epiphany that came to me:

How to make a completely plant based (non-weird meat substitutey) version of ground beef taco filling. Don't get me wrong I love a good processed meat substitute here and there...I mean I'm not eating meat so cut me some slack ok? This is a super quick way to help make Taco Tuesday plant based and uber litty.

Ingredients:

1 portobello mushroom (gills removed and wiped clean)

1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa

1 cup of water

2 tbsp of vegan worcesteshire sauce

1 tsp of cumin powder

1 tsp of chili powder

2 cloves fresh chopped garlic

1 tsp fresh chopped parsley

pinch of cayenne

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

drizzle of raw honey or agave

Instructions:

1. Preheat your even to 425℉.

2. Mix the worcesteshire, garlic, seasonings, garlic and honey/agave together in a bowl. Toss the cap in the mix making sure it's coated well. Set a tbsp of the marinade aside.

3. Place the mushroom cap on a baking sheet cap side facing down. Drizzle a generous amout of sauce (about a tsp) onto the inside of the cap. Bake for 15-20 min or until nicely carmelized.

4. Bring your water to a boil with the tsp of marinade added. Add in the quinoa. Cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the quinoa is fluffy and no longer cunchy (about 15 min). If the quinoa dries out before being done, add a touch more water during cooking.

5. Chop your cooked mushroom into small dice sized pieces and mix into the cooked quinoa. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Add it as a filling to your fave taco or quesadilla recipes and enjoy!

So my dog has a tumor on her tummy and I feel it has to do with her diet. I feed her pretty good dog food but it's still dry which I cannot convince myself is ok. I mean come on. Imagine if all the food we ate was dry or made of an unrecognizable paste?

And have you read the labels lately? Shit is wild bruh.

Anywho, I thought how hard could it be to make my pup some cheap food? Pretty damn easy actually. Like 10 min. easy. And she eats for almost a week (sidenote: I have a small dog and I feed her once a day).

I feel in my heart I can shrink her tumor naturally. Our bodies are the shit when we help them run optimally. I've seen it in myself. Let's see what happens...

Here are the deets:

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes diced and roasted

2 cups of fresh spinach

1 handful of fresh chopped parsley

16oz of ground turkey

1 tsp of ground turmeric

pinch of fresh black pepper and sea salt

Instructions

1. Cook the turkey meat in a pan with the turmeric, salt and pepper until crumbly and no pink remains in the meat.

Instructions:

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over med-high with half the oil until just before the oil begins to smoke.

2. Add in your mushrooms. Once in the pan, add a pinch of salt and pepper to them. Cook the mushrooms until golden brown on both sides and remove from pan (about 5 minutes). Add a little more oil if the mushrooms soak it all up before they brown.

3. To the same pan, add in your onions. Then the rest of the salt and pepper. Follow this with all of the other dry spices. Cook the spices with the onions until they are nicely toasted and the onions are just starting to brown (about 5 more minutes)

4. In a bowl, pour in 1 tbsp of the coconut milk and the cooked rice. Stir and set aside.

5. Pour the remaining coconut milk into the pan with the curry. Then stir in your water, garlic, honey, parsley and lemon juice. Let this mixture simmer and reduce on medium for 5 min.

6. Taste your sauce and adjust with salt to taste. Add in the broccoli and simmer for another 3-4 min or until all the broccoli becomes bright green.

7. Now take your pieces of bell pepper and place them skin side down directly on your stove top and roast until the skin begins to char. Set aside.

8. To plate, spoon some rice into your bowl, add in the broccoli and sauce. Then top with the mushrooms and peppers. 'Tis lit.

Vegetables ain't wack. You just gotta season them hoes. (And not cook them to death)

Ingredients:

2 bunches of fresh asparagus

1 large clove of fresh garlic chopped

1 tsp fresh chopped parsley

1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest

1 tsp sea salt

Pinch of fresh black pepper

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 stock pot of boiling water (with 2 tbsp of sea salt added)

1 large bowl or casserole dish with ice water

Instructions:

1. While waiting for your salt water to boil, take one individual asparagus out of the rubber band-bound pack. Grab the tip and end. Bend it gently until it breaks naturally. Wherever that piece breaks will be used as the measure of where the stems become chewy and should be cut.

2. Take your broken asparagus measurer and line it up with the remaining bundle in the rubber bands. Cut the remaining asparagus to the same length as the first broken piece.

3. Drop the asparagus (one bundle at a time) into the boiling water. Boil for 5 seconds. Remove the spears and immediately place them into the ice water. Follow the same steps with the other bundle. Once all spears are cooked, drain them well and pat them dry.

4. Combine the sea salt, lemon zest, garlic, parsley and pepper with the olive oil. Drizzle the mixture over the asparagus, toss and enjoy!

"Finding your purpose" is a something I know you've heard a million times. You've probably googled how to do it just as many. And you still wind up stumped by the end of scanning a bunch of articles on Forbes and searching Amazon for the perfect book to help you do it.

But here's the thing…..you can't discover something that already exists.

Ain't that what we learned about Christopher Columbus? He didn't discover shit....he just came to a realization that other people already knew.

And the same goes for you.

We each have a gift. I refuse to believe that anyone on this earth was born for the hell of it. You were created on purpose WITH a purpose, otherwise you wouldn't have made it out the birth canal....even if your folks didn't "plan" you.

You are still here. And that ain't no mistake.

But the problem is that we often don't think we have a gift because we see it as not being “good enough”. We can easily turn on the tv or radio and spot other people's gifts but we will shit on our own abilities.

Imagine if barbers and hairstylists never saw playing with hair as purposeful. Or if clothing designers saw stitching patches of fabric together as pointless.

Thank God they they think otherwise because we'd all be outchea looking rough as hell.

Do you see what I'm saying though?

Your gift could be knitting, or making coloring books or playing with flowers. And each of us needs you to realize that shit.

It's a whole lot of things that I'm not good at that I rely on other people to do for me:

And there are people out there that need me to NOT DOUBT my abilities so I can help them solve their problems in turn.

So how do you cross the bridge from doubt to knowing?

Start looking at the things that genuinely excite you. No matter how outlandish you may think it is to make a living from it. (This crazy ass white man named Thomas Edison thought he could create light in a bulb once). Oh and ask your friends and relatives what service they would come to you for if they needed help.

Embrace the things that you love to do off the clock and let them lead you to the land of possibility.

You CAN get paid to play for a living. There is someone that needs what you are doubting you have to offer.

But you can't start until you realize the magic you possess in this moment right now. We all need each other to accept, access and share the things we are good at in order to help create the world we want to live in. We are the source of change we seek.

So stop trying to find something that already exists….Your purpose has been there all along.